The right web hosting service for a forum can make all the difference in the success of a website discussion board, message board, or other type of forum. While forums can be managed with open source software, those that don't have the time or inclination to work with this software can turn to a forum hosting service, which provides the additional benefits of delegating management, security and administrative updates to the hosting company.Owners of forum sites can spend more time attracting and sustaining an audience.

Choosing the Best Forum Hosting Provider

In order to find the best forum hosting service for you, start by looking for these two main criteria from the provider (although there are many considerations to keep in mind, as listed below): fault tolerance and the ability to provide simultaneous access and communication to a large number of visitors. Normally your choice of forum hosting will be between Cloud hosting and a Dedicated server. Remember, that Cloud hosting allows for virtual hosting from any location with internet access, and a Dedicated server provides exclusive access to the resources and capacities of an entire server for maximum performance.

Key Forum Hosting Criteria

How can you tell if a forum hosting provider is right for you? An ideal forum hosting company has to offer the following:

Affordable and flexible rates

Proven record of little or no failures

The option to "design" a package

JavaScript proprietary patented user-friendly control panel

Quality support services (including the possibility of rapid communication like Livechat)

Bonuses such as free domain name registration, free transfer to another host, a long test period, etc

Average uptime of 99% that is backed by evidence

The latest versions of PHP

Forums also require the use of appropriate forum applications like phpBB, vBulletin, mybb or IPB; whichever application you will use on your forum, make sure that the hosting provider you’re interested in makes assurances to support these applications in a seamless fashion. Popular community forum installations available from some of the best forum hosting companies include the Simple Machines Forum, phpBB, bbPress, PunBB and Vanilla forums. Look for a forum company that supports all or as many of these and other applications as possible; a breadth in accommodation signals true understanding and expertise in forum hosting. The best forum hosting companies will also include applications like Softaculous for free, automatic installation of common applications that can enrich a forum website, along with servers that are optimized to host forum sites specifically.

Choosing the best forum hosting service also depends on load calculation, which refers to the amount of traffic and bandwidth a forum or website in general can manage; this might include uploaded pictures, documents or any type of heavy traffic to the site. If use exceeds the predetermined load calculation of a forum, this will likely result in overload. Though servers have always dealt with the problem of unexpected heavy loads, scalability (or the ability to increase bandwidth) from a provider is still incredibly important. To ensure visitors to your website enjoy a seamless experience regardless of spikes in traffic or limitations in bandwidth, secure your ability to scale the forum in advance.

Additional Forum Hosting Considerations

Forum hosting plans should also afford users easy-to-use control panels, like cPanel, that still allow for a great deal of forum customization via CSS and the ability to incorporate enhanced features. A good forum control panel should also provide site analytics of the traffic and uptimes to help forum owners best manage their site. Quality customer service support is also key; if a forum hosting company doesn’t make guarantees for round-the-clock service with connections to live technicians, know that you can definitely find that level of customer support from another top forum hosting provider.

Depending on the nature of your forum website, it may also be important to inquire whether or not a hosting provider can support multiple forums or multiple discussion categories within a forum. Forum hosting providers should also ensure that they can support numerous posting options, such as file uploading and attaching, photo/graphic insertions, or in general, an unlimited number of posts.

Forum Hosting Security

What types of security measures are in place to protect the data on your forum website? This is a question that every user in the market for a forum hosting service should consider before making a hosting purchase. While almost all hosting companies make assurances that their customer’s website are secure, look for specific security measures in forum hosting plans like firewalls, DDoS protection, daily backups and automatic alerts to users should any malware or security threat be detected on a website.

PickupHost – Professional Ratings

The number of companies representing different levels of hosting services is increasing rapidly, making it all the more difficult for users to choose the right forum service. That's why at PickupHost, we provide the reliable assistance you can count on when attempting to select the best hosting provider. With the most extensive database of hosting companies in the United States, you can speed up the search by filtering the exact information you need, such as:

The geographical location of the server

The cost of services

The type of control panel

Special requirements

At PickupHost, you'll also find real user reviews that aren't subject to marketing, rates of the direct service provider, a detailed description of services and much more valuable information.

In addition, our review service provides users the latest coupons available for each hosting service, which means the perfect host for your site can also come at the perfect price. Just check the 'coupons' tab when reading reviews for a particular host.

With our objective and relevant insight, you'll be able to easily select the top web hosting provider for you or your company.